The first two schools from Greece that are participating in the project SMILE are the:
2nd Experimental Gymnasium of Athens and 1st Experimental High School of Athens “Gennadeio”
2nd Experimental Gymnasium of Athens
The 2nd Experimental Gymnasium of Athens, is a secondary public school that is located in the center of Athens and it has 486 students (30 of them with special educational needs). Students are mainly of Greek origin with 20% of them of multicultural origin and come from families of mid-income. Students are guided to develop abilities and to achieve objectives and the school, as its title suggests, differs from most public schools in that it has adopted innovative practices and approaches. These include interdisciplinary teaching in most teaching subjects. More information about the institution can be found on the school’s official website here.
The collaboration with the school involves 9 participants that took part in a two-day training on 30th of September and 1st of October 2019. Teachers from the school who are involved decided to deal with the domain “Partnership with parents”, and more specifically with the first indicator of this domain that concerns the individual conversations with parents, which may have different purposes, whenever necessary and as frequently as it is needed to reach the goal. It’s something that they have been working on but not officially systemized, yet.
1st Experimental High School of Athens “Gennadeio”
The 1st Experimental High School of Athens “Gennadeio” is at the center of Athens, at the neighborhood of Plaka, facing the Acropolis. The school has 250 students (16 of them with special educational needs), and it is a Public High School close to the Parliament, ministries and other public services. The students arrive at school from different parts of the city and receive all the positive and negative impact that stems from living and moving in the city center.
The training of the educators took place successfully on 18th and 19th of February, 2020. After it, they expressed the importance of the communication with parents which will improve the management of the problems such as the integration of pupils with learning difficulties, like dyslexia or distraction, in the learning process. Also, they declared:
“We will be better informed about specific problems of their children and we will receive further information and impetus for specialized support.”
In the 1st Experimental High School of Athens, the “Partnership with parents” theme of the project is also being implemented.
